Chapter 10

The day had finally arrived. The day Yugi had been waiting for. Tonight the tournament would officially begin with the grand opening. Yugi had been allowed to finish early from school and headed to KaibaCorp to help get ready for the opening that afternoon. Kaiba was pulling out all the stocks for the opening. He wanted this to be the grandest opening ever. There was to be speeches by not only himself but Yugi as well. Fireworks were being set up all over the place and that night the first round of duels would be announced. Tonight everyone involved with the tournament would find out who their first opponent would be and then have a mere twelve hours to prepare before the first duels would be fought. Kaiba had arranged for duelling spaces to be set all over town, much like in Battle City, however these spaces were not to be changed by individual duellists and which duels would be fought there would be decided by KaibaCorp. There were also to be gaps between each round to allow the city of Domino to function and those not involved or not interested in the tournament to at least carry on with their normal lives to some degree. The tournament was going to still be disruptive, but Kaiba was trying to keep the disruption to a minimum.

Yugi was pacing up and down staring at a piece of paper in his hands, reading it over and over again. He didn't realise it but as he read he was muttering. He was in the room which Mokuba had arranged for him so he could get some privacy throughout the day and also be out of the way of the KaibaCorp employees, who were running around even more frantically then they had been on the day the tournament was announced. The room had a couple of sofas and chairs for him to sit and wait or try to relax. A table at the far wall had a coffee machine and various treats for him to enjoy but as of yet he hadn't touched anything. He was too concerned with the paper in front of him. Pausing he frowned staring at the words written on the page.

"Yugi, don't over think this." A voice in front of him said, "If you do then you might do exactly what you're worried about."

Yugi looked up, "How do you do this? You always seem to know what to say when you need to and its effortless."

A laugh, "I appreciate you saying that but sometimes I thought the same as you and wondered if I was saying the right thing."

"What do you think the hardest speech you made was?" Yugi asked, suddenly curious about the other's experience.

There was a pause as the other person in the room thought for a moment, "Probably the speech I made to the soldiers right before we tried to defeat Zorc for the first time."

Yugi looked at the former Pharaoh for a moment, it wasn't very often that he spoke about his first battle with Zorc.

"I did not know whether we'd be victorious or not and I don't believe they did either so trying to inspire them was hard when what I wanted to do was get them to save themselves and their families."

"What happened to them?" Yugi asked, but instantly regretted it.

A short pause, "They lost hope and I'm glad they did. I paid the price, and they did not."

Yugi looked away, wishing he'd never asked. He began to pace again trying to distract Atem away from the subject he shouldn't have brought up. A few minutes past in silence before Yugi stopped again.

"Yugi you will be absolutely fine. Just say what you feel in the moment." Atem advised, a soft smile on his face, "The right words will be there when you need them."

Yugi looked over to his closest friend and tried to return the smile but found he couldn't. Why he was so nervous about making a speech he did not know, the press conference had been more nerve wracking then this. Here he was simply going to inspire all the participants in the tournament and wish them luck. Maybe Atem was right, in fact he probably was. If he did try to over think this he'd look silly. Sighing Yugi nodded which caused the once King to widen his smile and reposition himself on the sofa. It had been over a week since the attack and Grandpa had finally allowed Atem to leave the game shop on the understanding he would look after himself. His injuries were healing nicely and the cuts and bruises to his face were looking far better then they had a few days ago. It was just as well that he was looking better as in the days leading up to today the press had, as Grandpa had warned, taken to following Yugi around. There'd been a few pictures of the pair of them in the media which had Yugi worried that some reporter might talk about Atem's appearance but luckily they were far more interested in Yugi then him. Although comments had been made about how similar the pair looked the cover story of Atem being a distant cousin seemed to be holding. A fan had asked Yugi just the other day, when he'd stopped him for an autograph, how if they were distant cousins they looked so similar. He'd somehow managed to get the boy to believe that a rare gene ran in the family which gave them the unique colouring. Remarkably the boy had believed this and that had been passed on which had helped maintain the cover story.

Looking down once more at the paper in his hands Yugi sighed and screwed it up into a ball, throwing it in a nearby bin. He let out a huff and glanced up at the clock. The time was drawing closer, he was excited about the tournament kicking off but he was nervous. The last thing he wanted to do was make a fool of himself, he'd always hated making speeches.

"I'll be fine once this speech is done." Yugi said, pinching his nose.

"It will be over before you know it." Atem replied, he was shuffling through Yugi's deck.

"Let's hope so. Once it's done I can find out who I'm duelling first."

"I don't believe it will be Kaiba. It's obvious he wants to duel you for the title so I would suspect he wants that the be the grand finale."

Yugi nodded, that was a good point. Not that Kaiba would cheat to ensure that they duelled in the final but he could agree that it was definitely his plan.

"You've chosen good cards Yugi, they will do well." Atem said, as he continued to shuffle the cards but he paused as his eyes fell upon a familiar card.

Yugi noticed his pause and turned to look at him. Even from this distance he knew the card Atem was looking at. Cautiously he made his way over to the sofa and sat opposite the former Pharaoh. His expression was unreadable, his famous expression when he wanted to keep what he was thinking a secret. The only time Yugi had ever been able to know what he was thinking behind that expression was when he'd shared a mind with him. Although he could not be certain what the once King was thinking he had a pretty good idea.

"You don't mind, do you?" He asked slowly, "You don't mind me using him, I know what he means to you."

A smile worked its way onto Atem's face and he finally met Yugi's gaze, "Why would I mind Yugi? He served me well over the years and I have no doubt he will do the same for you."

Atem held out the card, the Dark Magician. Hesitantly Yugi took it and cast his own eyes down at the card.

"Do you think his spirit is still trapped in there?"

A sigh, "In honesty Yugi, I don't know. But if he is then he will be there for you during your duels as he was there for me."

Yugi nodded and silence fell between them. Both of them were gazing down at the card in Yugi's hands. But before too long Yugi looked up at the clock and slipped the card into his deck, getting to his feet. The former Pharaoh watched with pride as Yugi expertly slipped the deck in his duel disk and placed the duel disk upon his arm. Yugi nodded to himself, he was ready. He exchanged a glance with his closest friend before there was a knock at the door. The door opened and Mokuba appeared.

"You ready Yugi?" He asked.

Yugi nodded, "Let's get this tournament started."

Mokuba motioned to him and left the room. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Atem get to his feet, as he followed Mokuba out of the room and down the corridor. It was almost eerily silent as they walked, all the KaibaCorp employees had gathered to watch the opening from inside the building. The opening was to take place on the steps of KaibaCorp and as they approached the reception area Yugi could hear the crowd outside. He followed Mokuba to the doors where they found Seto Kaiba waiting. He nodded to Kaiba then turned back to look at the former Pharaoh but he found Atem had stopped following. He was standing back with the other KaibaCorp employees, their eyes met and Atem simply gave him a reassuring nod. Turning back Yugi nodded to himself, this was it, time to get this tournament started.

Atem watched as his friend readied himself, he could tell that he was nervous but he wasn't worried. Yugi would be absolutely fine. Looking around he saw all the other employees were looking rather excited as well, they'd all worked hard for this day and now the fruits of their labour would be shown. He couldn't help but wonder what the view from outside would be. He knew that Joey and the others were out there. A movement caught his eye and Atem looked to see Mokuba coming towards him.

"They're just about ready to go." Mokuba said, his voice was low so only Atem could hear, "But I was thinking you'd want to watch this from the front."

Atem nodded, "How did you know?"

"Because I would want to watch from there too. I want to watch my big brother with everyone else but I'm needed here." Mokuba said, "But just because I can't doesn't mean you can't either. When I was setting up I found Joey, Tristan and Tea out there. Joey is out there with the other duellists, but Tea and Tristan are watching from a good viewpoint I found for them. If you go through that door you'll find them."

Mokuba indicated an emergency exit door, looking towards it Atem smiled and thanked Mokuba and moved to it. As he reached the door he looked back at Yugi who was looking out the door observing the crowd. He didn't need him here, Yugi was confident enough to do this, of that he had no doubt. Pushing the door he stepped out and hurried down the few steps outside. Outside the emergency exit was a raised metal platform which had steps which led down to the ground but it was also long enough that it just over lapped with the front of the building which gave a good view of the steps leading to the main entrance, it was more a of side on view but it was still a good view, it was also quiet with only two people standing by the railings. Leaning against the railing was Tristan and Tea just as Mokuba had said. He approached them and Tristan looked round and grinned.

"Here he is!" Tristan called, "Mokuba said he'd get you to meet us here."

"It was very thoughtful of him to let us watch from here." Atem said, leaning against the railing.

"How's Yugi?" Tea asked, leaning over the railing slightly to look at him.

"He's nervous." Atem admitted, "But I have no doubt he'll be fine."

Tristan nodded, "Of course he will. I imagine he'll hold his composure better then Joey. He was more like an excitable puppy then a duellist when he left to stand with the others."

The three of them laughed before Atem pointed at the doors to KaibaCorp which were opening. Music blasted from the speakers and sparks were thrown high into the air as Kaiba emerged from the building with Yugi right behind him. The crowd went wild, cheers roared and even managed to drown out the music momentarily as Kaiba and Yugi took their places on the steps. From their vantage point the three of them clapped at the sight of their best friend although he knew that it was highly unlikely that Yugi would see them from here. As Kaiba started to speak Atem's eyes travelled over the crowd of people watching, at the front he could just about spot Joey's unruly hair, next to him were the other duellists, all with their duel disks strapped to their arms. Behind the duellist stood the rest of the huge crowd, they were still cheering and craning their necks to get a better view. As he watched he couldn't help but think back to the issue that was plaguing him. What if someone standing in that crowd was planning something, something which meant that Yugi would be in danger. That's what that boy had told him that night… hadn't he? The events of that night still eluded him, his memory had still not returned fully. All he remembered was someone mentioning the tournament. At least he thought it was about the tournament. Biting his lip to prevent any sound of frustration escape he scanned the crowd, hoping that something might trigger his memory. But nothing did. It was infuriating, the answers to his questions were still right there but he couldn't reach them. The logical voice in his head was telling him that eventually his memory would return but that wasn't good enough. Something was telling him that someone had something planned for this tournament and Yugi. What if it was about to happen right this moment? What if –

Beside him Tristan nudged him rather hard in the side, turning to look at him he saw Tristan point at something. Following where he was indicating Atem saw Yugi step forward with a huge grin on his face.

"Hi Everyone!" He greeted.

The crowd erupted with cheers and applause.

"I am so excited to be here and officially open this tournament with you all as the King of Games. A title which I am honoured to hold and I know that Kaiba is desperate to win off me. I'm sure he's behind me right now burning holes in the back of my head."

Ripples of laughter shot through the crowd.

"Being King of Games doesn't mean that I'm the best or that I won't make mistakes, I am human I make mistakes, mistakes that can put me into dangerous situations. But I got to be the King of Games because I believe in my deck and I trust my cards to get me through. There will be duellists here that could well give me a run for my money but I trust my deck and I am excited to go up against you worthy duellists to defend my title. I say to all of you taking part in this tournament to trust your deck and trust yourself. Choose your cards with care, respect them and they will serve you well. I'm sure you all know what I am going to say but I will say it anyway, believe in the heart of the cards!"

The crowd erupted in cheers once more. The three friends watching from the balcony clapped with smiles on their faces, Tristan even whooped a few times.

"In just a short time all of us here duelling will find out who our first opponent will be. To my future opponent, whoever they will be… well… see you on the field."

Yugi grinned and stepped back as the crowd once again went wild. Up on the balcony Tristan was whooping even louder then before, he was standing up on the railing and would have toppled over it but thankfully the other two pulled him back before that could happen. Tea shook her head as Tristan continued to whoop and Atem just smiled at them before looking back at Yugi. He'd had no doubt Yugi would know what to say and he'd been proven right.

Far away from KaibaCorp and the opening of the tournament, three boys were stood outside a shop watching the opening from a television displayed in the window. They watched as the King of Games made his speech and saw the reaction of the crowd. The boy in the middle frowned and pulled out his phone, searching for something. After a moment he found what he was looking for, a photo published as part of the news report on the tournament. Frowning at the photo he looked back at the television.

"He's got some nerve to actually show up after what we did." The boy on the left said, narrowing his eyes at the screen.

"Hang on, we gave him a good beating right?" The boy on the right replied, "Why hasn't he got any bruises or anything?"

The boy to the left leaned in, "Yeah you're right. There's no way he would have come out of that unscathed."

"Unless he's covered it with make up or something."

"Or." The boy in the middle cut in, "The guy we beat up wasn't actually Yugi Muto."

The other two boys looked at him, confusion in their eyes. The boy in the middle held his phone up so the other two could see. The picture displayed on the screen was one of Yugi Muto but there was someone else behind him. Someone who looked very much like the King of Games. As they looked closer they could see that this person wore the marks of someone who'd recently received a beating. They looked under the image where a caption explained who the people pictured were.

"So… we didn't actually beat up the King of Games," The boy to the right said, "We got his cousin?"

The boy in the middle nodded. The other two looked at each other, not in horror or guilt for getting the wrong person but with amusement.

"Well this is kind of awkward." The boy to the left said after a moment, "What do we do now?"

"We carry on." The boy in the middle answered, "I have an idea of how to make the King of Games relinquish that title to me and scurry back to the shadows where he belongs. Come on let's get ready, this will be fun."

The boys either side of him sniggered and hurried to follow their friend away from the shop and off into the night.